Pay attention: Car insurance is required

By Sully Witte

editor@moultrienews.com

An officer saw a car pull into the Pitt Street Bridge parking area late one evening and turned around to see why a car would be going that way so late at night.

As the driver parked, the officer pulled up and noticed her getting out of the car with her dog.

She told him that she and her fiance were just taking their dog for a walk.

The officer radioed the car information into dispatch and after a few minutes they radioed back and informed him that the woman’s tag was suspended for failure to maintain insurance.

According to a police report she told the officer that her car had been in the shop for a long time and she had just gotten it back two days ago. She said she let the insurance lapse but she thought she reinstated it.

The officer had her look for this documentation while he ran her driver’s license through the computer.

She was unable to locate any insurance information, and dispatch informed the officer that this woman was wanted by Charleston County for failure to appear in family court.

The officer asked her about this warrant and she explained that it was probably for not being able to pay child support.

She told the officer that her ex-husband has done this before and frequently likes to make her suffer.

She was taken into custody and her fiance took possession of the dog and her personal items.

The car was then inventoried and three open beers were found, and she was charged with that as well.

Scrapping

Some people drive around in cars looking for scrap metal that has been thrown to the curb.

They then exchange this metal for money.

But this is the first police report we’ve seen where someone has been accused of scrapping items from someone’s home.

In this incident, a woman called police to report that an acquaintance had been staying with her on her couch.

When he left the next morning she noticed that a metal picture frame, multiple spoons and forks and a food warmer were missing.

She told police that this acquaintance was looking for metals to exchange for money and she said she had witnessed him take items in the past.

She told the officer, according to the report, that the night before she caught him trying to take the same items and she would not let him. She decided she would like to press charges.

The officer placed the man on trespass notice while they opened an investigation to prove he stole the items.

Irrational?

Police were called to a high dollar restaurant one afternoon in reference to a disturbance.

A woman was having lunch with a business colleague when all of the sudden her soon-to-be ex-husband showed up at the restaurant and pulled out a camcorder. He started taping them having lunch and caused a scene in the restaurant, according to the police report.

The male party having lunch with this woman called police because he had financial paperwork laid out on the table and was worried that these confidential papers and documents could have been compromised.

The female explained to the officer that she is in the process of a divorce and that her husband had been acting irrationally due to him believing she was having an affair.

She told police that she believes her phone has been bugged and that is how her husband found her that afternoon.

The husband left the scene before the officer got there. The officer then explained that his actions were not illegal because they were in a public place.

However, he told all parties how to obtain a restraining order and if this behavior turned out to be a pattern, she should call police to report him.

She’s sorry

An officer waiting at a stop light witnessed a driver pass by not wearing her seat belt. He followed the car into a nearby parking lot. The driver said she was sorry for not wearing her seat belt and that she was late for work. Oddly, though, she pulled into a drug store, not her place of employment, so she couldn’t have been that late.

At any rate, the officer asked her for her license, registration and proof of insurance. She was unable to provide any of that.

That is because her license is suspended for multiple unpaid tickets. It was also suspended for not turning in a collision form and cancelation of insurance.

Further, she was wanted by both City of Charleston Police and Berkeley County for traffic related charges.

She was taken into custody and charged with a seat belt violation, driving under suspension second, failure to comply, no proof of insurance and no proof of registration.

Cat fight

Police were called to a gas station because two women went into a rage on each other in front of the pumps.

The victim told police that several hours earlier her friend was driving her car in the rain.

She ran up on a curb and popped the tires. With that she pulled into the nearest gas station and parked in front of the pumps.

The victim told police that she was upset and frustrated that her tires popped and started crying.

She explained to police that her friend thought she was mad at her for popping the tires and became irate.

The victim told police that her friend grabbed her hair and started punching her in the face.

She said she was able to get out of the vehicle and away from her friend.

At that point she started pulling her friend’s things out of her car and told her she needed to leave.

But the friend jumped out of the car and shoved the victim against the car, according to a police report. She again started punching the victim in the face.

The victim said she hit her friend back in self defense and was able to run inside the gas station.

She said she asked the clerk to call 911 but police never arrived.

She said she was then picked up by her friend’s mother.

According to the officer’s report, he observed a bump on the victim’s head and a red mark across her eye.

Then, upon speaking to the gas station clerk, the officer learned that the man witnessed the altercation and saw that their car was blocking the gas pumps. He asked them to move the car and they did, but the car was still blocking one pump.

He told police that the driver seemed to be the one instigating the fight and after they were finished hitting each other the driver took off on foot.

He said the victim did come into the store but never asked him to call police.

He said he wanted both females placed on trespass notice.

He also added, according to the police report, that both females looked like they were on drugs.

He said he had the car towed after it had been abandoned in front of the pumps for two hours.

The officer then asked the victim if she knew where her vehicle was and why it had been towed?

Her response was to wonder why the clerk did not call police for her.

The officer then asked her why she didn’t call police herself.

Her reply was that she called her boyfriend and didn’t call police because she had asked the clerk to.

She was unable to explain why she herself did not call police or report the incident until six hours later.

The report said she wanted to press charges and the officer told her how to go about doing that.

Bad timing

Police patrolling Highway 17 saw a man changing a tire on the side of the highway and stopped to offer assistance. He parked behind him with his blue lights on to provide a level of safety while he changed the tire.

He got the tire changed and then asked the officer to escort him to the nearest gas station so he could put air in the tires because one was going rather flat.

The officer then glanced in the man’s back seat.

In plain view was a clear glass bong, commonly used to smoke pot.

There was residue in it and clearly smelled of marijuana, according to the police report. At this point the officer questioned the vehicle owner who admitted to having a couple of grams of marijuana.

The pot was located and the driver was charged with simple possession and possession of paraphernalia.

The Police Blotter is intended to be an informative and/or humorous column written from police reports obtained from the Mount Pleasant Police Department. Many of the stories come from the initial incident reports and, occasionally, supplemental reports. Generally, cases have not been adjudicated at the time of publication.

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